166 Tzvciity-ninth Annual Meeting 



with the best of evidence, to get a conviction by a jury, this year 

 in those same counties we have not missed a conviction. Now 

 you will see how rapidly sentiment changes in this work. In 

 one of our counties where we have a great deal of commercial 

 fishing, last year we had one party arrested three times for taking 

 small fish — whitefish or lake trout — and he got clear every time. 

 This vear the first time he was arrested he was convicted and 

 punished, and the second time convicted and punished and each 

 time by a jury of his peers, so that we feel we have changed 

 the sentiment in l)ringing before the people the necessity for this 

 protective work for the perpetuation of our commercial fisheries. 

 "In taking the small fish, of course, before the age at which 

 they reproduce, the commercial fishermen practically 'kill the 

 goose that lays the golden egg,' while to leave them means re- 

 plenished and prosperous fisheries ; they cannot expect 'to reap 

 if they do not sow\' 



"This is true also of the game department. By careful pro- 

 tection we find our quail are increasing very rapidly from year 

 to vear. We have now a 40-days' shooting season, from the 

 20th of October to the 30th of November. This includes quail, 

 partridge, wood-cock and snipe. I think we never had as many 

 quail in the field as we had last season. They are rapidly going 

 northward as agricultural operations have increased in that di- 

 rection, and we find our quail now in plenty in Emmett County 

 on the west shore and Cheboygan County on the east shore, but 

 we don't get any quail in the Upper Peninsula as yet. How- 

 ever, deer and partridge are very plentiful in that portion of 

 our State, holding their own in good shape. 



"The work of protection, in connection with the work of fish 

 commissions, it seems to me, should be supported, and that these 

 two departments should always work in harmony. It was spoken 

 of yesterday by one of the members, I think Mr. Bryant, of the 

 Wisconsin Commission, that they were able by keeping out of 

 protection, saying nothing about that, to get a good appropria- 

 tion for propagating; I think that is right. I think the work of 



